My little project was put on hold for a few days thanks to a plethora of bacteria and viruses floating around the house, but I got back at it today.

I first tried to rip Frozen, but got a reading error. No biggie, this disc already had flare-ups while playing in my PS4. The Lion King ripped without a hitch, so I installed the Plex Server on the laptop, did some basic configuration and... it just worked! In the format I ripped it in no less, with options for all spoken and subtitled languages I configured in MakeMKV!

The casting downstairs through the Chromecast -> receiver -> tv with the iPhone app (and later my wife's Android) went seamlessly as well. Okay, a bit of stuttering at first, but that's because the laptop/Plex server is still running on wifi.

Next up, I plugged a HDMI cable to my secondary monitor and set that it doesn't go to sleep when I close the lid - which is apparently really easy in Windows settings. The HDMI cable is juuuuust long enough to make it while hidden under the desk.

Which also means that the laptop now has a fixed place, meaning I can plug it into the LAN.

Next up in the coming days will be some security settings. I don't want Windows update to interrupt the Plex server's workings, but I don't want it to be a security risk either. Ideally, I would be able to shut it off from the Internet completely while keeping the LAN connection. Would setting the proxy to something made up work for this? I still plan to update regularly, but on my schedule, so then I could just turn off the 'proxy' and get to work.

So far, it's going so smoothly that I fear something will implode. I have never had a hobby project go so easily!

Installed plex server on my nas and it went well. Install the plex player on the laptop and app on the tablet. Everything just worked The only downside is you have to pay to be able to do mobile streaming. Not a big problem since I can stream stuff to my mobile devices already.

I'm not sure if the paid version is worth it or not. I can play my music through google or amazon.

I used the mobile streaming a bit when I was in the hospital post surgeries, but aside from that instance I haven't found a real need for it. If I'm mobile I'm probably working/busy in some other way and don't have time to stream anyway.

Plex is great for a home server. The additional media consumption options enabled by paying for the app are nice, but very much a case by case usefulness basis. Either way, five or six bucks for the mobile app isn't horrendous if you decide to try it.

I don't care what you do on the weekend, but I don't think it qualifies as a movie for this thread even if you film your escapades. -Garion333

Installed plex server on my nas and it went well. Install the plex player on the laptop and app on the tablet. Everything just worked The only downside is you have to pay to be able to do mobile streaming. Not a big problem since I can stream stuff to my mobile devices already.

I'm not sure if the paid version is worth it or not. I can play my music through google or amazon.

My main reason for doing paid was to get hardware decoding on my NAS (synology). It's processor wouldn't be fast enough to transcode without it.

My laptop-turned-Plex server hums along just fine, I just need to tweak the security stuff a bit further during the holidays.

One weird 'issue' though: when I try to stream my 1080p content directly to the Chromecast downstairs, there's noticeable lag occurring. When I delve into the Plex options for quality, it says that direct streaming takes 2Mbps bandwith. Other options differ in quality and bandwith requirements and require the Plex server to convert the stream before sending it through. Funnily enough though the option for streaming after conversion in 1080 high quality, which takes 8Mbps bandwith according to the mobile app GUI, works without a hiccup!

This made me suspect it wasn't bandwith-related, but the symptoms really coalesce with the diagnosis, and when I run the movies directly from the server it goes smooth as butter.

My laptop-turned-Plex server hums along just fine, I just need to tweak the security stuff a bit further during the holidays.

One weird 'issue' though: when I try to stream my 1080p content directly to the Chromecast downstairs, there's noticeable lag occurring. When I delve into the Plex options for quality, it says that direct streaming takes 2Mbps bandwith. Other options differ in quality and bandwith requirements and require the Plex server to convert the stream before sending it through. Funnily enough though the option for streaming after conversion in 1080 high quality, which takes 8Mbps bandwith according to the mobile app GUI, works without a hiccup!

This made me suspect it wasn't bandwith-related, but the symptoms really coalesce with the diagnosis, and when I run the movies directly from the server it goes smooth as butter.

Weird, no?

I'm guessing 1 of 3 scenarios:
1. Free version does not let you using hardware decoding. In other words not network lag but PC isn't powerful enough to software transcode.
2. You have paid version but haven't enabled hardware decoding in the options.
3. You have paid version but computer doesn't have the appropriate hardware to support decoding.

I'm using the free version, paid Android app. The laptop has an Intel® CoreTM i5-2430M 2,40GHz CPU, 8GB RAM, GeForce 540M. If I run the movies on the laptop itself, there is no lag whatsoever, even with subtitles.

Other thing is: why is it faster to let the Plex server transcode first, instead of streaming it directly in original format? Even when I transcode to the same quality as the original content, the hiccups disappear. Which makes no sense to me.

I'm using the free version, paid Android app. The laptop has an Intel® CoreTM i5-2430M 2,40GHz CPU, 8GB RAM, GeForce 540M. If I run the movies on the laptop itself, there is no lag whatsoever, even with subtitles.

Other thing is: why is it faster to let the Plex server transcode first, instead of streaming it directly in original format? Even when I transcode to the same quality as the original content, the hiccups disappear. Which makes no sense to me.

I misread your original statement. Are you sure it's still not doing some sort of transcoding? I imagine the Chromecast would be pretty specific in supported formats. The laptop doesn't do any transcoding, when playing locally, so that wouldn't be relevant in troubleshooting. The software / hardware transcoding is done for compatibility on the client devices (Xbox, smart phones, chomecast, ect.)

The other thought that came to mind is that the Chromecast struggles decoding the original compression.

It might be worth starting a stream to the Chromecast, then going into the server settings, pulling up activity, and checking the stream. If you hit the "show details" button, it'll show you exactly what it's doing as far as direct/transcode for audio and video.

Come to think of it, the hiccups start on the smartphone - both on my iPhone or my wife's Android. So before the Chromecast gets involved.

Chaz wrote:

It might be worth starting a stream to the Chromecast, then going into the server settings, pulling up activity, and checking the stream. If you hit the "show details" button, it'll show you exactly what it's doing as far as direct/transcode for audio and video.

I'll do that, thanks.

In the meantime, I'll try to set the default play settings to 'transcoded to 1080HD full quality' to keep the user friendliness up for the missus.